[Mb-civic] Rove Pressed On Conflicts, Source Says - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Rove Pressed On Conflicts, Source Says
Questions Said to Focus On Differing Accounts

By Carol D. Leonnig and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 15, 2005; Page A01

The grand jury investigating the CIA leak case pressed White House 
senior adviser Karl Rove yesterday to more fully explain his 
conversations with reporters about CIA operative Valerie Plame, 
including discrepancies between his testimony and the account provided 
by a key witness in the investigation, according to a source familiar 
with Rove's account.

Making his fourth appearance before the grand jury, Rove answered a 
broad range of questions for 4 1/2 hours, including why he did not 
initially tell federal agents about a July 2003 conversation about Plame 
with the witness, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper, the source said.

Rove's defense team asserts that President Bush's deputy chief of staff 
has not committed a crime but nevertheless anticipates that special 
prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald could find a way to bring charges in 
the next two weeks, the source said.

"The special counsel has not advised Mr. Rove that he is a target of the 
investigation and affirmed that he has made no decision concerning 
charges," Robert Luskin, Rove's attorney, said in a statement.

Fitzgerald is believed to be in the final days of a 22-month 
investigation into whether any administration officials knowingly 
identified Plame to the media to retaliate against her husband, an 
outspoken critic of the Iraq war. White House officials are bracing for 
the possibility that Rove; I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice 
president's chief of staff; or other officials could be indicted.

But it remains a mystery who -- if anyone -- will be charged in the 
case. The grand jury expires Oct. 28.

One person who will not be charged is Judith Miller, the New York Times 
reporter who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify in the case 
before making two recent appearances before the grand jury. Miller was 
recently told by Fitzgerald that she is only a witness in the case, 
according to a source close to Miller.

"Judy has always been a witness in this case and nothing more," said 
Robert S. Bennett, Miller's attorney. "She is neither a subject nor a 
target of the investigation."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/14/AR2005101402076.html?nav=hcmodule
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20051015/4e1a3128/attachment.htm